22 March 2013

Noela Nancarrow Reviews A Long Way Home by Margaret Brownley

A Long Way Home has become one of my all-time favourite books! It is one of the most delightfully
heartwarming, charmingly romantic, and yet incredibly humorous tales that
you’ll ever have the pleasure to read!

Set in a small gold mining town named Deadman’s
Gulch with a group of rough and tough men, their one room shacks, two tent
saloons and not a great deal else, it was hardly the place for a young woman
who is pregnant and recently widowed to end up in. But that is exactly what
happens to Libby Summerfield! On her way to Centrefield, Libby is dropped off
by the rider of a horse-drawn wagon a mile outside of Deadman’s Gulch, as he
was fearful of going any closer lest he get shot. After having fallen into icy
water, Libby is freezing and fearing for the life of her baby, she presses on
toward the town. Having reached the town completely exhausted, Libby is then
shot by a stray bullet. She collapses on the porch of the nearest shack which
just happens to be Logan St. John’s.

Mountain man Logan, is stunned to discover a woman in
Deadman’s Gulch and on his porch no less. He sweeps her up and carries her
inside to revive her and nurse her back to health. Little did he know that by
this one caring act, just how much his life would turn upside-down.

Logan is one of those unique and engaging characters
that is as imposing as he is vulnerable. His powerful presence in this story
will undoubtedly leave an indelible impression upon your heart, as will his
charming and distinctive manner and his endearing expression of “Well now.”

Libby is a stubborn, strong, and talkative woman,
and once she overcomes her initial fear of Logan, she brings a force into his
life he didn’t think possible, especially from a pregnant woman! She riles and
infuriates him, is overly emotional at times and talks incessantly whenever
she’s angry or fearful. But then Logan is an enigma himself mystifying her with
his friendliness one moment and brusqueness the next.

Their relationship grows and develops without them
realizing it, but both are unprepared for what’s happening to them and are unable
to see how things could possibly ever work out. Witnessing each of their
personal struggles unfold is believable, stirring, and heartbreaking, but the
exquisitely touching moments of both tenderness and mirth between Logan and
Libby is not only immensely intriguing with these two characters but also
deeply compelling.

Most of the unrefined
and crude miners that make up the town also have big hearts, and watching them
all interact provides some classic moments especially when Libby’s giving
birth. But when the township decides that things have to change for the better,
can this boorish and rowdy assortment of men possibly change from their ungodly
ways of shooting, swearing, and gambling? And with Libby determined to go home
to Boston for her baby’s sake, what will become of her? With someone out for
revenge and wild animals roaming the surrounding areas, there is never a dull
moment in this story!

This is one book you don’t want to miss. I absolutely
loved this vividly written and gripping story that was a perfect balance of
adventure, suspense, romance, humour, and
faith. Highly recommended!

GIVEAWAYS: Margaret is generously giving away a copy of “Grieving God’s Way.” She is also giving away a copy of “Waiting for Morning.”

We are also giving away the choice of any of Margaret’s books this week, choice of format, to one of our commenters.

QUESTION: As all women will attest to, giving birth
is anything but funny. But nevertheless, inevitably there are always amusing
situations that happen at some births. Did you have or do you know of a
humorous story surrounding a birth?

34 comments:

Hello, great review...I would love to read this book!When I was giving birth to my first child, I was young and had no idea what I was doing. I had heard about certain breathing techniques and decided to try it....I, of course, did it wrong and ended up hyperventilating. I went completely numb from head to toe; didn't even feel my daughter when she came out. I guess it was a blessing in disguise. LOL About an hour after she was born, I was in the bathroom and had a seizure (right there on the toilet). I guess my body decided to finally react to my breathing wrong earlier. It all worked out well...I woke up, on the toilet, to smelling salts under my nose, and then everything went back to normal. Needless to say, with my next two kids, I felt pain. Amusing enough for you? Hahahadebsbunch5[at]jesusanswers[dot]com

Lol DEBBIE, I'm not sure if your story made me laugh as much as it did at the end when you asked if it was amusing enough for me! :) Don't like the bit about you having a seizure afterwards, and I wouldn't recommend women in labour hyperventilating, but that sure is a blessing you didn't feel anything when she was born!

Glad you like the review DEBBIE, and I hope you get to read this book because you will enjoy it SO much!!

Noela another mah-velous review my dear as usual! This book is going to have to go on my TBR list. In fact all of Margaret's books sound so good!!

Ok here's one of my many funny childbirth stories, on my birthday Aug.24, 1995 for my checkup, Joshua wasn't due until Sept. 14th. When I climbed up on the table, which was a hard thing to do for a woman that looked like she was having twins, I had a small pain in my side, no biggie! I look at the doc and jokingly say "today's my birthday can I have this baby?" He looks at my chart for my due date and he says "nope not today it's too early" When he starts my exam he stops and looks up at me and asks me if I had been having any pains, I grin and say yea a little bit in my side while climbing on the table. lol Then he starts mumbling to himself "she had a little pain in her side climbing on the table" He then looks at me and says you are going to have this baby today, I thought he was joking, then he tells me "you have already dialated to 8 cm." :D Needless to say I was a little shocked! I wasn't even ready to go to the hospital so I go home and take my time packing my suitcase, probably took an hour or so to get to the hospital, I only live 5 minutes from there! The nurses were standing on their heads when I finally made it, they thought I had the baby in the car on the way!! lol About 4 hours later I had my 8lb 5oz boy!!

I have a few more stories about my oldest son's birth but I don't want to bore y'all with the details!! LOL!!

TERESA, this was the first of MARGARET'S books I'd read and after this one I I couldn't wait to read every other one of hers! The great news is there are new releases on the way also... including a story in 'A Pioneer Christmas Collection'!! Which as you know is very special to me, wink wink!

Lol TERESA, you really had me laughing out loud with this story!! Especially loved the doctor mumbling what you'd said to him! Guess you got your birthday wish!! :) I can't believe they even let you go home at 8cm dilated! Or that the only pain you had was a little pain in your side!! I have to ask because everyone reading this will want to know, how did that other 2cm go for you?? :)

After getting to the hospital, the doc shows up to check me again and I kept asking for my epidural, he looks at me and says "do you have any pain?" I looked really weird at him and said "NO BUT I DON'T WANT ANY EITHER!!" About two hours later I had my baby boy Joshua. :)

Guess I'll go ahead and tell you about Daniel's birthday. Daniel was the first grandbaby on Carlton's side and the youngest of Mom and Dad's grandchildren by almost 15 years. Everyone in both families was very excited about it. So when my doctor decided to induce me because my hands and feet were so swollen I could barely use them everyone decided to show up to THE EVENT. The hospital where I was allowed as many people in as you wanted. So here we had my mom, (dad was home-bound by then so he didn't come) Carlton's mom and dad, my sister, her daughter, Carlton's brother and his wife, (who had tried to be the ones to have the first baby Grandbaby but lost by three months) my SIL and her daughter. All of them were having a grand old time...talking..laughing and all but having dinner on the ground. lol I was getting a little nervous thinking are they all going to stay in here with me THE WHOLE TIME??? I love my family and I will share most anything with them but this WAS NOT something I wanted to share!! So when my daddy called to check on me he asked about all the noise and when I told him how many people were there, he asked did I want them in there and I said NO!!! So he hung with me and it wasn't but a couple of minutes later the nurse comes in and politely tells them they all have to leave, except my mom, sister and of course Carlton. I had never loved my daddy more than at that moment. How in the world he found the exact phone number to call in that short time still has me shaking my head. lol

My daddy had a bad heart and was unable to leave the house very often but the day we brought Daniel home he made sure he came over to hold his grandson that I had named after him (JULIAN is Daniel's middle name). He only lived about two years after that, I wish my boys could had him around longer but at least Daniel remembers him, Josh was only 7 months when he passed so he doesn't remember him at all. I still miss him, he was the best daddy ever! :)

Ohhh TERESA your story made me both laugh AND cry!! What a wonderful, sweet dad you had! That was very special he visited you and held his grandson that was named after him, and that he came to your rescue in the hospital like that. Sweet memories.You made me LOL though when you looked at the doctor like he was the strange one, telling him you didn't want any pain EITHER! So funny! Pls tell me he didn't succumb to the wishes of the crazy woman and give you the epidural?! :)

You bet he did!! but the rascal must have not given me as much as when I had Daniel because I pretty much felt everything having Joshua. I think he got me back!! lol After he was finishing up with me, he asked what I was doing for my birthday??!! I told him someone had better bring me a cake and he told me to make sure to save him some! The next morning he came by and asked if I had saved his piece of cake??? He's the best doctor ever so of course I had saved him a piece of B-day cake. :)

Another great sounding book--do you gals ever read books that aren't? LOL

Thinking about births, at 1st I couldn't think of anything funny, but then I remembered my 2nd child's birth story. After having to make payments on our 1st child (we didn't have insurance coverage), for quite some time, and knowing we didn't have insurance again, it was decided that we would have a home birth for our 2nd baby. My mom had come early to help out, and eventually my dad arrived, figuring--"this baby has to come sometime!" Although my dad wanted to be there for the birth, he was a bit nervous about the whole "home birth" thing.

One day, he took me around to run errands, including making our car payments. My dad waited in the car while I went inside the bank to make the payment. As I stood there waiting for them to process my payment, (which for, some reason was taking FOREVER all of a sudden, I felt "liquid" begin to run down my legs. I never said a word to the teller, but was hoping nobody would notice that this lady now had "wet pants". I finished the payment & walked out to the car, trying to pretend that nothing unusual had just happened. I told my dad my "water had just broke" and my dad's face turned white and he quickly drove me back home & I called the midwife.

The rest of the story was not nearly as funny, with the exception of when my firstborn (a 4 yr. old son) came in our bedroom to see me and the pain of a contraction caused me to "lose my stomach" all over his foot/shoe--and he thought it was funny! Then when it came time to push, the midwife kept telling me to hold my breath and push--and I kept blowing the air out instead. Finally, she said, "NO! I said HOLD your breath!", and I remember thinking, "Oh! She wants me to HOLD my breath." I had also hyperventilated, so my brain was NOT thinking clearly--that is what she had been telling me the entire time! LOL

VICKI, in answer to your question at the beginning of your post... Very rarely!! :) And this one is no exception because it is just fabulous!

Thanks so much for sharing your story! Wow, I don't know how you kept your cool at the bank as you were making your "deposit", lol! :) I imagine I would've exclaimed something or other out loud enough to send everyone into a panic haha! Had to laugh at your dad's face turning white, lol. And I'm glad your son was able to laugh after you threw up over his foot!! :)

With my second baby, I was 36 weeks when my midwife came for my normal visit. She did her normal things and started to leave when I asked her if she would check me as I felt like I was dilating. She said she was sure I wasn't as it was too early, but she'd check to relieve my mind. You should have seen her eyes when I went from a 4.5 to 5 WHILE she was checking me! lol She asked if I thought she had time to run home and throw some dinner together for her family, which struck me as hilarious as I hadn't had a single contraction yet. My little one took her time showing up, but it was the easiest labor and birth of all of my 4 kids! :-)

Gosh, how do you all do that?! :) That's amazing but wonderful! Every birth is special, but the ones that are easier and we're more aware, are truly amazing experiences! My second baby was probably my best one too, though I'm pretty sure I felt every single millimetre of the dilation!! :)

I have read several of Margaret Brownley's books and loved every one of them.

My funny baby story was funny afterwards but not at the time of delivery. My doctor kept telling me we had miscalculated my due date, and I kept saying no way as I got bigger and bigger and went nearly a month past my due date. (This was almost 39 years ago and things have come a long way since then!) Finally, my OB said I have duty next weekend so let's induce. It was Memorial Day weekend and the temps in southern California were pushing 113! All we had in our apartment was a window unit and the thought of being in an air-conditioned hospital having a baby I thought was well overdue was fine with me!! Well when the OB went to break my waters, there was no water!! My son was definitely overdue and had absorbed all the amniotic fluid!! Needless to say that was one quick delivery. All went well. But the funny thing was how that baby looked. One pickled prune like he had been in the bathtub way too long. They put him under a heat lamp to dry him out and washed him with Selsun Blue Dandruff shampoo to make all that wrinkled skin slough off!! He was one funny looking little boy and the whole time my mom kept yelling get a dermatologist in here!!

My moment was working as an ER nurse one night a lady came and was trying to make it up to the floor but the baby was coming... we tilted her and told her to cross her legs so that she could wait for the ob doc to come!Lisadeiselbuffs@gmail.com

This sounds like another great book from Margaret. I just love her blend of humor, romance, and action.One humorous thing that happened as I was laboring to give birth with my first child: it was going on so long that my parents were both there. Dad was across the large room with my husband while my mother was closer to me. At one point, she suggested I try to be a little quieter with my groaning because it was upsetting my husband! It wasn't funny at the time since I was the one in great pain, but I can see the humor in it now.

Haha DIANA, I have some horror stories of my own - especially with my first baby!! And the only thing I find funny NOW, was with my third labour when I was trying to use the gas to take the edge off the pain, and I reckon the thing wasn't even turned on... eventually I threw the thing away saying how useless it was!! Oh and at one stage I had my husband in a headlock, lol!

Being an avid Wheel of Fortune fan, while giving her last 'push' of Cailin Grace...she yelled POSTAGE STAMP. We had no idea what was going on till we looked across the room at the tv - yep...she was the winner!

Lol MELODY!! I have NO idea how anyone could be concentrating on Wheel of Fortune at that stage of labour, lol, but if I had've been in that room I would've lost it and really would've been on the floor rolling around laughing! That is too funny, thanks for sharing! :)

To answer the question, I really can't think of one, but, when I had my first baby, I was taken to the Hospital by a friend who was a Policeman, and he used his siren all of the way. My mother was with me and she was so embaressed that he did this. I was hurting at the time, but had to laugh at her, when I'd had the baby and we talked about it. Didn't have my baby for a long time either, tho had been having contractions every 3 min. So many times when we look back at things, we realize it really was funny. Maxie OWG

Nice to see you MAXIE, and I have to say I think that's pretty cool getting a ride in your friends police vehicle with the siren on!! I totally agree also that many things are only really funny when we look back on them. I think because at the time we're mostly mortified with embarrassment! :)

Well done to your Mother!! But that's really funny that she was too much of a lady to scream! Great self-control there! I never thought I would be a screamer but I think I screamed the loudest with my third child. With the first I had no energy after being in labour for two days and nothing to eat for a day. The second delivery I had plenty of happy gas, but the third, absolutely nothing, and so the screaming just sort of seemed out of my control, but it got me through!! :)

Noela, great review and quite enjoyable! My first three births were painless - adoptions. My first pregnancy occurred when I was nearly 40, unexpected but a joyous pregnancy. The dr announced the baby as a boy first and quickly corrected himself to "it's a girl!" Before becoming pregnant, I'd heard too many stories about all the screaming and yelling that was done in labor. I vowed I would not do that, because I was too happy about being pregnant. By the grace of God, I didn't object to the pain too much and my jaws were sore from holding my mouth shut and gritting my teeth during labor. Shanna was born on a cold snowy day in January, and the next morning it was a crystal world outside my window. Frozen ice on trees and gorgeous. Later, I have been asked how I was able to finally get pregnant after so many years of thinking I wasn't capable of getting pregnant.....my answer "switch husbands" always brought raised eyebrows and dropped jaws. But I would then explain that I had been divorced after 17 years. When I married again in my late 30's - I then conceived. Oh, what joy!!! Shanna is now 35 and this marriage will soon complete 38 years. Shanna joined my 3 adopted babies and My husband's 3 children and I finally got that big family of children I always dreamed about and wished for. God gave me the desire of my heart!

Thanks for stopping by to read the review and for sharing your story BARB!I'm so happy for you that you got that big family that was the desire of your heart. That would've been an incredible feeling to conceive after so long. God bless!

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Winners for 2017 per random.org:

Box of book from my "Just" post:

A copy of Jocelyn Green's new novel, A Refuge Assured Alison B.

From my Easy Way or Hard Way post - choice of any of my upcoming collections: Melanie Backus

From my Trust post

one of my 2018 releases from Barbour in 2018: First Love Forever collection : Mindy H